Search This Blog

Friday, 28 February 2014

This is an old Persian story - which seems to sum up the position of Homeopathy denialists!

"A man who had always lived in the city visited a farm and saw some chicken roosting and resting on one leg as they do."Based on his observation he reported to his older and wiser friend that chickens have only one leg!"His friend could not change this man's observation no matter how hard he tried and how many photographs of birds and chickens all having two legs!"He formed a group of prominent people who all confirmed that Chicken have only 1 leg!

This appears to be the way that Homeopathy Denialists function. They regularly attack these blogs. They believe that homeopathy does not work, that there is no evidence that homeopathy works, and that it is nothing more than placebo.

Every person who was sick but has been treated successfully with homeopathy is an 'anecdote'.

The many millions of former patients who can testify for the effectiveness of homeopathy are still just 'anecdotes'.

Evidence produced by scientific research is not acknowledged by them: it is either ignored altogether or is 'not of sufficient quality'.

What is the best way to deal with people whose beliefs and prejudices appear to overcome what everyone can see?

Ignore them! Allow them to continue to believe that chickens have just one leg, and continue healing illness and disease, and curing patients through Homeopathy.

Recently, I have been blogging a lot from the "Why Homeopathy?" website, which seeks to examine and compare the homeopathic and conventional treatment of a variety of illnesses and diseases. In all of them conventional medicine either has nothing to offer (and admits it on the NHS Choices website), or offers drugs which can known to cause the most serious adverse reactions, or DIEs. Homeopathy offers gentle, safe and effective remedies, and in most of the illnesses covered, there is is scientific research to support it.

What is the militant skeptic response to these articles. Have a look at these typical examples, all sent to me via Twitter over recent weeks.

"Why Homeopathy is best treatment for Asthma"

It isn't, you complete charlatan.

SayNoToBullshit

Dangerous bullshit

Dangerous bollocks

Complete and utter twaddle

You dishonest charlatan

That fuckwit is currently advocating sugar pills for painful female problems which sometimes indicate serious conditions.

The public has a right to know... that you are a dangerous delusional fuckwit who smears opponents.

There's no homeopathic treatment for tetanus. Dangerously stupid and irresponsible.

So who do we have to thank for these insightful comments? Nat (@SecuLawyer); Enoch (@FruitOfNoah); Dragonblaze (who states that Homeopathy is 'faith based'); Vix (@lillal23); Anarchic Teapot; Paul Morgan; Secular Bloke, and many others.

You can see from the quality and the rationale of these comments that these are just the kind of people who, once they believe that a chicken has one leg, will continue to believe that chickens have just one leg.

But don't dismiss these people entirely, even though they produce no evidence to support their prejudices, even though their language is deplorable, even though they are clearly full of bile. There are some Homeopathy Denialists amongst theme who should know better. One of these is Edzard Ernst. Wikipedia describes him as follows:

"…. an academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was appointed Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the first such academic position in the world.

Perhaps we might expect something rather more edifying from him. I will be outlining some of his Twitter statements in a future blog, and unfortunately they are little better in terms of evidence and reason than his colleagues quoted above. Ernst, too, it would seem, is the kind of person who cannot be persuaded that chickens have two legs!

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Tonsillitis is the inflammation of the tonsils in the throat. It is a common infection in children, although it can also affect adults too. The symptoms include sore throat, difficulty swallowing, high temperature, coughing, which can be painful, headache. nausea, and swollen neck glands.

Conventional Medical Treatment

As the NHS Choices website openly admits, there is no “specific” treatment for tonsillitis. Instead, it recommends several things that can be done to help alleviate symptoms, such as: * paracetamol or ibuprofen / Nurofen to help relieve pain - with all the usual warnings about the harm they can cause, of course * plenty of bed rest, and drinking plenty of fluids
* antibiotics if the cause is a bacterial infection, although it rarely is

NHS Choices goes on to say that most cases of tonsillitis get better within a week. “A small number of children and adults have tonsillitis for a long time or it keeps coming back. This is known as chronic tonsillitis and may require treatment with surgery”.

So conventional medicine can, on their own admission, offer little effective treatment for tonsillitis. And when the condition becomes chronic it can offer only the surgical removal of the tonsils. And this operation has, in recent decades, been found to be damaging to our longer-term health (however, there is no mention of this in the NHS Choices website).

Perhaps this is why, for many decades, conventional medicine appears to have considered the tonsils to be an unnecessary, even useless organ! Through most of the 20th century, tonsils were removed, almost routinely, by surgeons. Indeed, it is widely admitted that the purpose of the tonsils was largely unknown. Only since the 1960’s was it gradually understood that the tonsils played an important role in our body’s immune function. The absence of tonsils is now even thought to have contributed to the outbreaks of Poliomyelitis. Now, our tonsils are known to be part of our first line of defence against pathogens - they are an integral part of our immune system.

“Tonsils are filled with lymphocytes which detect harmful intruders and fight off infections. When danger is discovered, the tonsils swell with these guardian cells to ward off the invaders, a process which often causes a sore throat."

So, inflamed tonsils did not indicate dysfunction, as conventional medicine appears to believe, but are organs that are importantly, and actively involved in protecting us. Despite this, conventional medicine continues to be prepared to remove them.

Homeopathy offers many remedies that are known to treat tonsillitis successfully, even where the condition has become chronic - with repeated and painful episodes. The main aim of homeopathic treatment is to avoid surgery, and the damage that this can do to our immune system. A good description of the many homeopathic remedies known to treat Tonsilitis is given on the Similima website (click here), from which these remedy pictures are taken.

LAC CANINUM - Begins on left side, changing from side to side every few hours or days. Sensitive to touch externally. Constant inclination to swallow, painful almost impossible. Pain extends to ears

Sore throat and cough are apt to begin and end with menses. Probably no remedy presents a more valuable pathogenesis in symptoms of the throat

LYCOPODIUM - Chronic enlargement of tonsils, which are covered with small ulcers. Affects right side, right to left. Children weak, emaciated, with well developed head, but puny, sickly bodies. Worse 4-8 pm, cold drinks. Better for warm drinks

SEPIA - Left side inflamed, much swelling with little redness. Sensation of lump in throat. Waked with sensation as if had swallowed something which has struck in the throat. Contraction of throat when swallowing. Sepia is chilly, indifferent. White or gray coating at the base of tongue. Intolerant to cold and closed places

SOLANUM-NIGRUM - Throat sore as if burnt, stitches in right side of throat. Raw sensation, painful swallowing, solids or liquids, worse on swallowing, at times stitches shooting to drum of right ear. Left tonsils swollen. Feeling as if splinter in right tonsil.

SULPHUR - When carefully selected remedies fail to produce a favourable effect, especially in acute cases. Chronic sore throat. Burning and dryness in throat. Complaints that are continually relapsing. Scrofulous, psoric, chronic diseases that result from suppressed eruption. For lean, stoop shouldered persons, standing is the worst position. Children dislike washing. Worse when standing, and for warmth of bed

THUJA - Swelling of tonsils and throat. Accumulation of a large quantity of tenacious mucus in mouth. Throat feels raw, dry, as from a plug, or as if it were constricted when swallowing. Ill effects of vaccination. Sweat only on uncovered parts or all over except head, stops when he wakes. Profuse sour smelling fetid at night. Worse in cold damp air, at night, 3am and 3pm

GUAIACUM - One of the most useful remedies at the commencement of an attack, especially of catarrhal tonsillitis. The characteristics are violent burning, headache, throat hot, chill and aching in back and limbs; abscesses form quickly. In the 1x frequently repeated it will often abort.

RAPHANUS - Heat and burning in throat, at times, chiefly in tonsils, with lancinations. Swelling, redness and pain in tonsils, as if raw.

STAPHISAGRIA- Tonsillitis, on swallowing a stitch runs up from throat into ear. Both tonsils inflamed and swollen.

SABADILLA - It is useful when the disease begins on the left side and extends to the right. The pain is worse from empty swallowing and is relieved by warm drinks. Sometimes there is a sensation as of a thread or string in the throat or else, a sense of constriction

MANCINELLA - Great swelling and suppuration of tonsils, with danger of suffocation; whistling breathing. Yellowish-white ulcers on tonsils, with violent burning pain; great elongation of uvula; offensive breath.

PETROLEUM - Angina granulosa, with stitches in ears during swallowing and burning in neck; slimy, flat or putrid taste in mouth, with mucous secretions or dry sore throat.

PLUMBUM MET - Tonsils inflamed, covered with small, painful abscesses. Angina granulosa, going from left to right; fluids can be swallowed, but solid food comes back into the mouth

RANUNCULUS - Swelling of tonsils, with shooting stitches in them; scraping or burning in throat

TEPLITZ - Pain in throat without redness, on swallowing. Swelling of uvula and tonsils with difficulty in swallowing. Swelling of cervical glands.

USTILAGO - Frequent attack of tonsillitis. Tonsils are congested and enlarged. The left tonsils is esp. affected. It looks large and dusky. There is intense pain on swallowing, lancinating pain extents from the tonsils to ear. The throat is dry and there is feeling of lump, behind the larynx which make the swallow constantly.

Monday, 24 February 2014

Migraine is a disorder marked by extremely painful and recurring headache, often alongside nausea and vomiting. Migraine attacks can be a frequent, almost daily event, or an occasional problem. There is often a trigger that brings on a migraine, such as stress, hormonal changes, or with certain foods and drinks, including cheese, chocolate, alcohol, and much else. Some people experience an ‘aura’ that precede the head pain, and the sufferer may also experience flashing lights, loss of vision, dizziness, and numbness. Migraines vary in intensity, from moderate to severe to intolerable. Any physical movement can be difficult.

It goes on to outline the treatment conventional medicine offers to the migraine sufferer.

Painkillers, like paracetamol and aspirin, pointing out some (but by no means all) the known problems with taking these drugs, and also pointing out that for some people they can make migraines worse. Moreover, whilst they may dull the pain, on a temporary basis, they do nothing to cure the condition itself

There are literally hundreds of homeopathic remedies that can be used in the treatment of headaches and migraines, and a qualified and registered homeopath will seek to match the sufferer with a remedy that will work for the individual. Homeopathic remedies work by stimulating the body’s own healing mechanisms. The following are just a few relevant remedy descriptions taken from “The Desktop Companion to Physical Pathology” by Roger Morrison, MD.

Nat Mur. The main remedy for migraines and headaches in general. Bursting pain. Sensation of small hammer in one spot. Vise. Favours right side. As headache stops on one side it comes on the opposite side. Worse morning, on waking; from grief; in sun, heat, during menses. Better cold applications, perspiration, for pressure, closing eyes; must lie down in dark room. Visual disturbances and vomiting from headache.

Spigella. Severe migraine headache. Left forehead above left eye. Pain extends back into head. Stitching or neuralgic pain. Violent pain. Usually in one spot. Worse, morning, comes and goes with sun; for motion, jarring; for cough, pressing at stool, for touch, stooping, standing; for cold or open air; for wind, smoke, noise. Better for heat or hot bathing; keeping eyes closed; lying down, with head elevated. Headache associated with palpitations or other heart problems.

Lachesis. Congestive headache with pulsation, fullness and pressing outward. Left side or forehead; begins on left side, moves to right. Frontal headache extending to nose. Bursting sensation, as if brain will burst or eyes will pop out. Worse morning on waking; heat; sleep; tight collars; anger; excitement; menses. Better for pressure, cold air and cold applications; for menstruation, and all discharges; for vomiting. Headache associated with hypertension.

Glonoinum. Intense pounding headache as if the head would burst. Face flushed and pulse bounds in carotids. Pain increases and decreases with the sun’s rise and fall. Worse, sun and heat. Menopause or before menses; jarring, motion, tight collars. Better for pressure, lying in dark room, cold applications or cold washing; bending head forward; betting into shade. Faintness during congestive headache.

Phosphorus. Migraine headaches with burning or pulsing pains. Headache every other day. Worse for fasting, lying on left side; for hot food or drinks; menses, light, mental exertion, before storms, sneezing, motion. Better after sleeping, eating running; for cold air or cold applications. Markedly hungry during headache.

Silica. Chronic headache and migraines. Start top of head and extends for forehead or eye. Headache with chronic sinusitis above root of nose. Worse for cold, or drafts; for light, jarring, noise, fasting, exertion, mental exertion. Continuous daily headache. Better for covering head; warm applications, for pressure, after urination. Clammy sweat on forehead during headache.

Ignatia. Migraine headaches, especially after grief and sorrow. Headache associated with back or neck spasms. Pains increase gradually and cease suddenly. Pain as if from nail, especially on side of head. Worse for emotions, grief, anger, fright; studying or concentration; for odours, smoke and fumes; for light; for stooping; for straining at stool. Better for lying on painful side; for alcohol, for warm applications. Empty sensation in stomach with headache.

Ipecacuanha. Headache with severe nausea and vomiting. Sensation as if head or skull brised. Worse standing. Better Open air.

Conclusion. “The results of this study demonstrate the interest of homeopathic medicines for the prevention and treatment of migraine attacks in children. A significant decrease in the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine attacks was observed and, consequently, reduced absenteeism from school”.

Friday, 21 February 2014

Measles is a childhood disease that was once a major killer. It is no longer. But it still continues to cause concern for parents as the conventional medical establishment continues to insist that it is. So, parents have to make a decision about injecting their child with the MMR vaccine when aged about 15 months. This page seeks to provide information for parents regarding that decision.

Conventional Medical Treatment of Measles

Prevention

Conventional prevention of measles is through the MMR vaccine, The NHS Choices webpage describes the vaccine, and when it is given to children; but it does not provide any information about the adverse reactions known to be caused by the MMR vaccine.

Parents do not appear to be told about these adverse reactions by conventional doctors, and therefore, parents have to do their own research in order to decide whether they are being entirely honest about the dangers of this vaccine.

Treatment

The NHS Choices website states that “there is no specific treatment for measles”. Advice is to rest, and to use painkilling drugs, like Paracetamol or Ibruprofen. It also suggests other routine care advice, plus the suggestion to use vitamin A.

Many homeopaths feel that contracting measles naturally is better for children who are otherwise healthy. Once, mother's would organise 'measles parties' for their children in order to allow their children to acquire natural immunity in this way. Homeopathy is relaxed about such strategies as it has remedies to treat measles, especially if it persists, or become severe.

Other homeopaths will use the measles nosode, Morbillinum, for prevention.

Treatment

Homeopaths have been treating measles for over 200 years with success. These are the main remedies used for the condition..

Aconite

Useful in the early stages

Sudden onset, with apprehension

Dry croupy barking cough

Worse, cold dry wind; otherwise chilled

Catarrh and high fever before rash confirms this remedy

Shivering, or violent fever

Hot dry (itching) skin

Thirsty

Much sneezing with pain at root of nose

Runny nose

Red eyes, dread of light

Restlessness, restless sleep

Drenching sweat with hot and cold spells

Diarrhoea

Hot heavy head, bursting, throbbing

Throat feels constricted

Throws off bedclothes

Chilliness when uncovered

Pains unbearable

Stitching pains in chest

Worse, in evening, at night; before midnight; for touch; light and noise; from being in cold wind

Better, for cold water and drink; for fresh, open air; for rest

Belladonna

Useful in early stages of measles

Sudden onset of HIGH fever; violence of attack; fury. Child may cry out thinking there are monsters, wild animals